Wow. This was so epic! I am so happy this is the fully collection of Mercy because there were so many points I felt I would’ve needed more. The end is satiating. The monsters are hungry. The town is full of poor people just trying to make ends meet and the people who exploit them. This comic series is so darkly gorgeous.

This comic is gorgeously drawn. It’s colored pages are often as beautiful as they are grotesque. This is definitely aimed at an adult audience. It took me longer than it would normally take for me to finish this book because of how beautiful the illustrations were. The monsters are truly monsterous and the humans themselves were also none too perfect.

The two main parts of this story that truly hooked me were the monsters and their unique inhumane humanity and the relationship between Lady Hellaine and Rory a little girl who sees her as an Angel and calls her mom. It is so cool how these monsters take over as parasites and reck havoc on the town, but what makes them so fascinating to me is the humanity. The memories of the hosts giving them feelings that their original being would have never felt before.

Lady Hellaine is one of these monsters and she is a force to be reckoned with. Yet her hosts body still remembers what it means to be a mother and meeting and taking in Rory is such an out of character thing for Hellaine to do yet she does it anyway. Their relationship makes Lady Hellaine question morality and makes her feel emotions in ways the monster in her never could. The exploration of that kind of deep introspection in these comics had me reading and thinking and gasping in awe all at the same time.

I highly recommend this comic collection! This is definitely one that I hope to find in store and keep as part of my physical collection. It is beautiful. It is haunting. It is impossible to put down once you begin.

Summary:

Fans of Mirka Andolfo (Unnatural, Un/Sacred) will be thrilled to hear about her latest project, Mercy. It's a terrifying and thrilling new horror series full of vibrant (and memorable) artwork.

One small town has been afraid of the Woodsburgh Devil for years. Yet only a small number of people truly understand the origins of the creatures – and why they plague the town so. Enter Lady Hellaine, a newcomer to the town but one who has made an effort to obfuscate her intent.

Review:

Before I dive into my review, I would like to say that Mercy is as haunting as beautiful. That means that this series isn't exactly for the faint of heart, as some very serious and intense subjects will be broached (and portrayed) throughout this graphic novel.

I originally read Mercy as individual issues, and even now, after reading the full graphic novel, I still can't get over this series. It was brilliant, beautiful, and so freaking terrifying. I loved every minute of it.

There's no doubt that Mercy has some of the best artwork I've seen in quite some time – it's simply striking. However, it does greatly increase the impact of certain horror elements, which Mirka Andolfo uses.

On that note, can I just say that I am extremely impressed with Mirka Andolfo? She wrote the whole series and provided most of the artwork (lettering is one of the only exceptions). Holy cow, that's some talent right there!

The tone and style of this series are perfect. It blends Victorian style with horror, resulting in something that feels so very...other. If that doesn't sound terrifying, think again. Shockingly, the human element added the most shock and fear, at least as far as I'm concerned. It provided a reason to care, but it's more than that. Really, it all comes down to Andolfo's writing, and it was enchanting.

It's also heartbreaking, and mostly, I mean that in a good way. If you want a feel-good story, this is not a series to dive into. But it is the perfect series to experience something completely different.

Highlights:
Gothic Horror
Historical
Romantic Subplot
Mirka Andolfo

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for allowing me to read and review this book.

Last year I read Andolfo’s Unnatural and LOVED it. I did not know at the time about this book, and did not put two and two together until the last couple of pages where Unnatural was sort of advertised. This is a completely different book than Unnatural in so many ways. For one, this is a horror, and a well written one. There’s a little bit of John Carpenter’s The Thing going on in this story, but it’s more human and personal with the monsters.

We’re given backstories for the main characters, as well as insight into why the monsters do what they do. There is a lot that isn’t clear in this book, but that opens it up for sequels. The ending was very surprising, but interesting and satisfying in a dark way. I can see this being turned into a horror film. The art is as beautiful as it is terrifying, and the storyline seemed solid and well written. There were a lot of gross parts (it has to do with eating) so don’t eat while you’re reading. There is sex and nudity in here as well, so I wouldn’t recommend this for children until 16, although I was reading worse younger than that.

I would describe this as Wild Wild West meets The Thing.

Great read, although I may have nightmares and not want to meet new people anymore, heh.

Violent, gory, dark all my favorite things. Especially in a graphic novel which is hard to find. Although that is true the illustrations made it hard for me to love it.

The sexualized nature of parts of this comic were really strange and out of place. Overall the comic was interesting and held my interest. I'm not entirely sure I understood what was happening in the plot but I think despite it not being clear I understood the gist.

This was a dark and intriguing tale, although it was at times too gratuitous and violent for my taste.

My goodness, I’m not even sure what to think after all that.

<i>Mercy</i> is perhaps the most wild ride of a graphic novel that I’ve ever had the pleasure and, let’s be honest, horror of reading. I have to give Mirka Andolfo credit—she definitely knows how to keep you engaged.

And truly, this is the sort of book that keeps you on the edge of your seat the entire time. You’re desperate to know more, to see what happens next, to find out the secrets the story has been hiding from you…even as you grow more and more disgusted with each page turn. Truth be told, I had gotten pretty sold on this story as a whole the farther I got into it.

Then one event kind of just blew it all to smithereens and left me feeling rather empty. Everything from there was honestly just kind of downhill, but it felt salvageable several times. But then you reach that final battle at the end and it’s once again kind of just blasted apart and I was just left once again wondering what was the point of even getting invested in anything if that’s all the story was going to lead to.

Now, the true ending was…different. I don’t think I can say I feel pleased or satisfied with it, but I can sort of see where the author’s decision came from? I dunno, this was a weird one. And while I’m mildly curious to know what happens in the sequel that is clearly coming, I am not entirely sure that I’m fully up for another roller coaster.

Thank you to NetGalley for this opportunity. Comics is now available.

This was a fun feminist Victorian horror read with beautiful art work and a captivating story.

The story starts with a mine infestation, a mine infestation of monsters. A lady enters the little town. It is a horrifying yet exhilarating novel. A perfect binge read

Thank you to Image Comics and Netgalley for the digital book.

The art style of Mirka Andolfo's Mercy is vibrant and gorey. It's beautiful and grotesque. I enjoyed the art immensely. It defiently has that otherworldy terror element that comes with cosmic horror and the Edwardian time period setting. I really loved the historical clothing design for the characters. However, the over all story left me wanting more. I wanted to know more about these characters and I feel like I didn't get enough time for all the twists to fully spin out.

I liked this graphic novel and highly suggest it to anyone interested in penny dreadfuls or the venom comics.

An interesting plot and storyline. The graphics were well done and exciting. The story was well-done.

Thank you to #NetGalley for the ARC in exchange for my honest opinion.

My rating is purely for the art/coloring as that is absolutely gorgeous but the story itself was so confusing and all over the place that I could just not get into it at all. I usually like horror/gory comics but the plot was all over the place here and so confusing that I just didn’t care for it. I feel like it had potential and had the story been presented differently then I probably would have liked it cuz the art was so good.

Mirka Andolfo's Mercy: The Fair Lady, The Frost, and The Fiend is full of betrayal, mystery, and cosmic horror.

This is a story of a found family (of sorts). But before all of that, the mysterious lady comes to town and with her brings attention to a host of terrifying slayings that are happening all across the city. Who is involved and who is behind all of these devastating losses? This is answered with gusto in this graphic novel that I flew through and fell in love with.

I enjoyed the twists and turns that this story took. Not only was it full of beautiful illustrations that immediately grabbed my attention, but these illustrations made me FEEL the connections between these characters. I think it portrayed the emotional impact of this story. I was taken aback at how much fun this story was to go through. Not only is it full of action sequences and mysteries that need to be solved, but it also has a host of loveable characters that you will grow to love (or hate).

The tagline says you'll like this if you enjoyed Penny Dreadful and that is absolutely true. I am a massive fan of that series and this story brought me right back to why I love these period pieces so much. I think you will enjoy this as much as I did, so check it out!

I loved the art! It was visually so stunning. I actually really enjoyed the story. I wasn't sure where they were going to go with it at first. I would say it was more horror than gothic in my opinion.

The art is gorgeous, particularly when the parasites take center stage, but most of the character development is rather lacking. The sheer number of “infected” people felt like a gimmick to add a few unexpected panels when the core of the story should have been Hellaine, Rory, and Goodwill. Instead we were sort of distracted by these side plots that are only (partially) explained after the fact.

Will I still read the sequel series, Merciless, when it gets a nice bind-up like this? Maybe. I think we left things off in a potentially interesting place, which could lead to developments I’d be curious about.

In the end, this story was definitely not for me. When the summary said Victorian inspired, I thought the horror aspect was going to be more Gothic and atmospheric. Instead, it's much more bloody and trending towards body horror than I was prepared for. The art is a highlight of this book, the figures are gorgeous and the use of color and panels was fantastic. The art alone was enough for me to want to give it a try. However, I found the story confusing, made more confusing by the fact that the main character herself seemed to not really know what was going on, and I didn't feel like I made much sense of it by the end of the book. There was a lot of elements thrown in that I felt needed more attention or explanation in order to make the story easier to follow along. That being said, I can see readers who are in to this type of story really loving this one.

An excellent gothic horror read! Mirka Andolfo brings his classic sense of twisted horror to the comic page again. And in classic Andolfo style, nothing is quite as it may seem, twice over. The twists and turns in this story (and that the characters have) are all well done and lead the reader to a place of realizing that no one is really good or bad. We’re all just trying to exist in the happiest way possible. Even if that’s at the expense of others.
There’s also a cleverly veiled warning about taking too many drugs; and putting your faith in people you don’t really know well.
Overall I adored this. Not only the wonderful comic illustrations; but how clever the writing is. And you can’t go wrong with the variant covers for the individual comics. Each one of them is an absolute gem of art.

𝘛𝘩𝘢𝘯𝘬 𝘺𝘰𝘶 𝘵𝘰 𝘕𝘦𝘵𝘨𝘢𝘭𝘭𝘦𝘺 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘐𝘮𝘢𝘨𝘦 𝘊𝘰𝘮𝘪𝘤𝘴 𝘧𝘰𝘳 𝘴𝘦𝘯𝘥𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘮𝘦 𝘢𝘯 𝘢𝘳𝘤 𝘪𝘯 𝘦𝘹𝘤𝘩𝘢𝘯𝘨𝘦 𝘧𝘰𝘳 𝘢𝘯 𝘩𝘰𝘯𝘦𝘴𝘵 𝘳𝘦𝘷𝘪𝘦𝘸

"ᴡʜᴏ ᴄᴀɴ ʙᴇʟɪᴇᴠᴇ ɪɴ ꜱᴏᴍᴇᴛʜɪɴɢ ᴛʜᴇʏ'ᴠᴇ ɴᴇᴠᴇʀ ꜱᴇᴇɴ ᴏʀ ꜰᴇʟᴛ? ʏᴇᴛ ᴇᴠᴇɴ ꜱᴏ, ᴛʜᴀᴛ ᴛʜɪɴɢ..."

Mercy: The Fair Lady, The Frost, and The Fiend was written and illustrated by Mirka Andolfo. I absolutely want to praise this graphic novel first and foremost for the art throughout, which was truly stunning. A few design aspects stuck out to me in particular, the first of which was Lady Hellaine's character design; she is so unique and gorgeous! I also was really struck by a few of the full-page spreads, they really had a lot of impact.

Mercy is a horror, gothic tale centered around a parasitic disease that can take on the appearance of a person. It takes place in a town that has already once been struck by grief and is now being haunted by those same monsters again.

The story has good creeping tension that is complemented well by the unnerving art, and the payoff is creepy body horror that really cements the power of the monster throughout the story. There were some genuine moments of interesting internal, moral struggles involving the monsters and the characters, and I really appreciated some of the interesting story beats.

A few things missed the mark from making this super impactful for me:

1. The voice writing for the children was a bit off and took me a bit out of interactions with those characters. For example, a child saying "sadistic" didn't fit my expectations for a young vocabulary.

2. There were a few plot moments where things felt jumped over - almost to the extent that I thought I had missed some significant chunks of the story. The pacing and background needed to make some of the payoff moments impactful just needed a little bit more time and finesse to really hit hard, but instead, I sometimes was left a bit lost and confused. I think this could easily have been resolved by chunking this one story into a few volumes or cutting some of the less critical plot moments to build up just one or two of the more crucial threads.

Overall, if you are a huge fan of Mirka Andolfo's art, I do recommend picking this up. It really does a lot of the heavy lifting for this comic, and I enjoyed even the moments I was less fond of due to the art!

TW: Child Abuse, Child Death, Body Horror, Gore, Disease, Nudity

Quotes:

"ᴇᴠɪʟ ᴄᴀɴ ʜɪᴅᴇ ᴇᴠᴇɴ ᴀᴍᴏɴɢ ᴛʜᴇ ᴍᴏꜱᴛ ɪɴɴᴏᴄᴇɴᴛ ᴄʀᴇᴀᴛᴜʀᴇꜱ ᴏꜰ ɢᴏᴅ"


Rating: ⭐⭐⭐/5

Wickedly beautiful artwork and a captivating story! I had to read this twice. If you love graphic novels, you will not want to pass up on this one. I did not know what to expect because this was my first graphic novel read in a long time. I am HOOKED! I don’t want to give anything away but somehow it captures so much on every page with the artwork. I cannot imagine what it would be to hold this artwork in your hand because the screen doesn’t do it justice.

"Mercy" by Mirka Andolfo offers a captivating blend of gothic atmosphere, historical setting, and horror elements, all wrapped up in stunning artwork. Set in the late 19th century in the mining town of Woodsburgh, the story revolves around a series of brutal killings by a mysterious monster coinciding with the arrival of a striking stranger.

One of the undeniable strengths of "Mercy" lies in its artwork. Andolfo's illustrations are undeniably breathtaking, capturing the eerie ambiance of the setting and the haunting presence of the titular character. The attention to detail and the atmospheric use of color contribute significantly to the immersive experience of the narrative.

In terms of storytelling, "Mercy" initially grips the reader with its compelling premise and mysterious atmosphere. The tension builds steadily as the townspeople grapple with the escalating violence and the enigmatic arrival of the stranger. However, as the narrative progresses towards its conclusion, some aspects of the story begin to falter.

One notable issue is the perceived lack of mystery towards the latter half of the volume. What starts as a promisingly enigmatic tale gradually loses its sense of intrigue, leaving the reader with unanswered questions and a feeling of dissatisfaction. Additionally, the story feels somewhat unfinished, as though certain plot threads are left unresolved or hastily tied up.

Another challenge while reading was the occasional difficulty in following the narrative. Despite the initial engagement, the storytelling can become disjointed at times, making it hard to fully immerse oneself in the unfolding events.

"Mercy" offers a visually stunning and initially compelling gothic horror experience set in a richly atmospheric historical backdrop. However, the story's descent into predictability and its unresolved plot elements detract from its overall impact. While the artwork alone may be enough to entice some readers, those seeking a tightly woven narrative may find themselves disappointed by the uneven execution.